Newly Discovered Interview with V.C. Andrews
- Rebecca Gustafson
- Nov 2, 2019
- 6 min read
A Rare Interview with V.C. Andrews from the June 1983 Edition of "The Twilight Zone" Magazine
Co-Credit: Becky Andrews and Rebecca Gustafson
Click on the link to read the article:
V.C. Andrews and "all those beautifully bizarre little things"
The existence of a rare interview with V.C. Andrews was recently uncovered by Becky Andrews. She enjoys conducting research into the lost works of V.C. Andrews and other information about her life. In her quest Becky hit a goldmine and found a source that referenced an interview that “The Twilight Zone” magazine had conducted with V.C. Andrews in 1983.
Becky mentioned this to me and I managed to find a website called “The Pulp Magazine Archive” that has a digital archive of almost all of the editions of “The Twilight Zone” magazine. I hoped they would have the edition I was most interested in and fortunately they did.
It’s a fascinating article that sheds new light on the life of V.C. Andrews, her writing process and many other interesting details. It even reveals the existence of other previously unknown works.
Additional Unpublished Works
According to “The Complete V.C. Andrews” website, there were four unpublished manuscripts that she wrote before publishing “Flowers in the Attic”:
“The Obsessed” - An 800-page novel, story unknown
“Castles of the Damned” - A 900-page Medieval romance novel
“All the Gallant Snowflakes” - Story and length unknown
“Gods of Green Mountain” - A Science Fiction novel that was eventually published as an e-book in 2004
According to this new article there are probably other unpublished works out there. V.C. Andrews claims she had written nine unpublished manuscripts by the time “Flowers in the Attic” was published.” She says “Flowers in the Attic” was the sixth book and “Petals on the Wind” was the seventh.
Including the four unpublished manuscripts that are known about that still leaves a few gaps (known unpublished works listed in no particular order):
“The Obsessed”
“Castles of the Damned”
“All the Gallant Snowflakes”
“Gods of Green Mountain”
?
“Flowers in the Attic”
“Petals on the Wind”
?
?
In her pitch letter for "Flowers in the Attic," V.C. Andrews does mention having published three Gothic romances under a pen name. That could account for the three additional novels, but I would think she would count those as published works.
The 5-Book Formula Evolved from Tacked on Sequels and Prequels
“If There Be Thorns” isn’t one of the unpublished manuscripts because V.C. Andrews says she had no intentions of writing a follow-up to “Petals on the Wind” until the publisher asked her to. I thought that was an interesting revelation from the article. She didn’t really want to write a third book, but the fans wanted to know what happened next and the publisher offered her a sum of money that she felt like she couldn’t turn down.
I feel like that explains why “If There Be Thorns” and “Seeds of Yesterday” don’t quite have the same amount of passion and intensity to them as “Flowers in the Attic” and “Petals on the Wind.” Her heart wasn’t as invested in the follow-up books as it was for the only two books she originally planned to write, until a lofty sum of money enticed her to continue the series.
That also proves that she didn’t have a particular number of books planned out for any of the series that she wrote. The “5-Book Formula” for a series was made the initial standard by the Ghostwriter, Andrew Neiderman, up to and including the Logan Series. The first three books were usually narrated by the main heroine from her teenage to adult years, the fourth book is narrated by her daughter and the fifth and final book was a prequel that was narrated by the main heroine’s mother or grandmother (the Logan series is slightly different with the fourth book being about the main heroine's cousin rather than her daughter).
This pattern wasn’t really established until the Casteel Family Series. In the Dollanganger Family Series the first two books are told from Cathy’s point-of-view, while the third is told from the perspective of her sons, Bart and Jory. Then the fourth book goes back to Cathy’s narration rather than her daughter. The fifth book, “Garden of Shadows,” was a prequel about Oliva Foxworth (the evil Grandmother of “Flowers in the Attic”), but it was written by Andrew Neiderman.
I think the prequel was definitely something the publisher wanted as opposed to V.C. Andrews herself since she’d already “grown tired of the characters” by the time she’d finished writing “Petals on the Wind.” The contract she signed after “Dark Angel” (that was never executed by the publisher because she passed away first) was for a prequel to “Flowers in the Attic” and for the sequel to “Dark Angel.”
The terms of this contract were passed on to Andrew Neiderman instead when they decided to try out a ghostwriter to continue the books. Since she’d signed a contact for the prequel, I wonder if the big twist in “Garden of Shadows” is something she’d written down or is entirely an invention of the ghostwriter. If it is entirely his own invention then he deserves credit because that was a brilliant twist where we discover that Christopher Sr. and Corrine are more closely related than they originally thought. Rather than being half-uncle and niece, they’re actually half-brother and sister.
Who’s Telling the Truth?
V.C. Andrews saying she’d written “Petals on the Wind” before “Flowers in the Attic” was published contradicts something Ann Patty wrote in an article for “The Toast” in 2013. In the article she claims that she helped V.C. Andrews come up with the idea for a sequel to “Flowers in the Attic”:
“What do you think about a sequel to Flowers?” I began. “Problem is, we need to do it quickly, so it can come out a year from November when Flowers is published.”
We discussed the broad outlines of what it should be: a revenge story, underpinned by the unbreakable, impossible love between Cathy and Chris. Virginia had a wicked sense of humor, and we took turns throwing out plot ideas, devising new miseries for the children to face in the outside world — illness, suicide, obsessive love, sexual transgression, and madness. We were like two teenagers having a schadenfreude party. Virginia’s imagination was one part fairy tale, one part soap opera, with a chaser of Bette Davis. After two hours, we had the outline of the sequel, and a title: Petals on the Wind.
Is one of them lying? V.C. Andrews was prone to exaggeration, but I don’t think she was lying in this case. Ann Patty wrote “The Toast” article in 2013, which was many years after V.C. Andrews had died in 1986. Maybe she felt it was safe to give herself more credit for the creation of “Petals on the Wind” since there was no one who could refute her version of events.
Trapped in a Genre of Her Own Creation
When this interview with the “The Twilight Zone” was published, V.C. Andrews herself didn’t know how to classify the books she wrote. She didn’t see them as straight-up horror, like Stephen King, which they definitely weren’t. I think she came the closest in the interview by describing them as “psychological thrillers.” They certainly delved into the psychology of the characters and they were thrilling, but there was something more to them that made them entirely unique.
They were like modern day Gothic fairy tales. A term was eventually coined for this new genre she’d created: “Children in Jeopardy.” Children in some sort of peril is a recurring theme throughout the novels she wrote herself. The heroines she created in “Flowers in the Attic,” “My Sweet Audrina” and “Heaven” begin their stories at an early point in their lives. They endure suffering as children and the psychological ramifications of that trauma are carried into their adult years.
The “Children in Jeopardy” genre made Simon & Schuster a lot of money so of course they wanted her to keep writing more books like that. V.C. Andrews admits in the interview that she would love to write something more mainstream and the primary thing stopping her was her editor. She says, “there’s a lot of pressure on me to keep writing thrillers or chillers or whatever they are.”
Her unpublished manuscripts show that she had an interest in a few different genres. “Gods of the Green Mountain” shows she had an interest in Science Fiction, but the reviews are only average. “Castles of the Damned” is a Medieval romance. The romance between Heaven and Troy in “Dark Angel” was enthralling so maybe she would have fared better in that genre.
It’s a pity that she never got a chance to branch out into other genres to see what she was capable of. Maybe her style and ideas were so unique that they could never fit into any of the established literary categories. It’s impressive as a budding author, fresh on the publishing scene, that she managed to create a new genre that captured the hearts and imaginations of millions of readers.
As much as it would have been interesting to see what else V.C. Andrews could have written if her publisher had allowed her to branch out into other genres, at least the works she created within her own genre are still beloved. This year celebrates the 40th Anniversary of her first and most famous novel "Flowers in the Attic." A tale of family secrets, parental betrayal and forbidden love told in her original and riveting style. It might not have won rave critical reviews, but V.C. Andrews could have cared less. Letters and pictures from fans were the only accolades she needed to know she'd created something special and enduring.
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